Practicum reflective report

In the teaching and learning process throughout the practicum phase, I learnt a lot
about the real situation on how to be an English teacher. Being an English teacher was
a challenge for me as I need to grasp pupils attention and gain their interest in learning
the second language. Based on my experienced, each pupil had different ability, level of
proficiency and desire to learn. The pupils have their own uniqueness and personal
needs which need the teacher to have well planned activities, suitable teaching
methods and good strategy in teaching ((Effective literacy, 2003).Besides that, as I
expected before I went to the school, teaching English and making the pupils wants to
learn English was not an easy task. The pupils may not have the motivation to learn
because for them English was not an important subject in their life and they did not
know when, where and how to use it in their daily life. Therefore, it was and will be my
task in future to nurture the interest of learning the English language and making the
pupils know the importance of English language.
Teacher as a practitioner
In teaching the pupils in school, I could see that there were a lot of suggested teaching
and learning activities in the text book and in the curriculum specifications. However,
some of these activities were not suitable and related with the pupils real life situations
as each pupil had different family and economic background. Social and cultural
influences may affect students social life, confidence level and attitudes towards
learning (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). Therefore, it was vital for me to adapt to the
situations and able to make sure my pupils were able to practice and apply the
knowledge in their real life situations.
In one of my lesson, I taught the pupils about myth and to relate it to the pupils
schemata, I asked them to list out their superhero cartoon in the class. The pupils were
very excited and have a lot of things to tell me about their superhero. I asked them
whether the superhero really exist or not to make sure they know the truth and did not
do any weird thing by following the action done by the superhero. I was able to engage
the pupils by asking them to write a simple description about the superhero by using
simple adjectives such as strong, powerful and others.
In my opinion, based on this incident or example, I learnt a lot on how to attract pupils
attention in my class. Based on the situation given, I was actually implicitly teaching
them how to use suitable adjectives to describe the superhero. Brown (2007) stated that
teacher needs to motivate the learners by meeting their needs of exploration,
stimulation, knowledge, self-esteem and autonomy. In language acquisition, Krashen
suggests that learners need to be comfortable and be confidence in receiving
comprehension input (VanPatten & Williams, 2007). In my opinion, if I teach them to use
the adjectives explicitly, the pupils may feel bored and not interested in the learning
process. This is one of the importances finding I find out during the practicum. I need to
manipulate my pupils interest to teach English language in attractive and fun ways.
In future, I need to be more aware of the current trend in pupils daily life. For example,
the use of internet, gadgets such as smart phone and tablets and others need to be
inducted in my teaching and learning process in the classroom. Apple had been
reported developing a programme for school in conjunction with textbooks publisher.
The company (Apple) also had organized instructional programme for teacher and
educator on how to use the iPads (Hu, 2011).
I need to discover the issues that attract pupils attention, adapt and manipulate it to
make sure I am able to cope with the changes in this informative community these days.
The methodologies used in teaching are also important. For example, teacher may use
games and information and communication technology (ICT) in the teaching process. I
did try using games and ICT in my teaching and it was really effective and it develops
pupils interest to learn the English language.


Teacher as an analyst
Teacher as an educator needs to be aware of the strength and weaknesses of the
pupils in their class. Teacher needs to know what are the things which may attract their
pupils to learn and things which may functions as distracters in learning. It is important
for the teacher to always do the analysis to know where the pupils stand in the learning
process, their strength and weakness in learning. Teacher also needs to analyze which
methods are the best for their pupils to learn and enjoy the learning process.
There were two incidents or situations I would relate with the subtopic the teacher as an
analyst. Before teaching the pupils, I analysed their examination results to find out their
strength and weaknesses. Based on the analysis, I found that the pupils were able to
answer the objectives questions quite well but they were not able to score in the
subjective / essay questions. This situation occurred due to lack of vocabulary which
affects their effectiveness in writing and using the words given. Willis & Willis (2007)
mentioned that the pupils need to be familiarized with the vocabulary before the teacher
proceeds with the learning process. Therefore, I always asked the pupils to give me the
definitions or act out to describe certain words during the lesson. Besides that, I always
sit and mingle with my pupils during recess or leisure time. I did chat with them and
used that opportunity to know what they likes and dislikes in my lesson. For example, I
asked questions such as Did you like the lesson yesterday? and Did you enjoy
reading the story?. I used their response to reflect and analyse on how to tackle the
pupils in my next lesson because I did get a lot of info from the chat. For example, one
of my pupils told me that he really keen if I can teach him something related about plant
and science during the English lesson.
Based on the situations under this subtopic, I think it is important for the teachers to
know when and how to analyse their teaching quality in the classroom. Perhaps, the
teacher may think that he had taught the pupils in excellent ways but that was not what
the pupils think happening in the classroom. In my opinion, teacher needs to respect the
pupils and realize that teacher can learn a lot from the pupils if the teacher knows how
to tackle and mingle with the pupils.
In future, I need to find out more ways to be a good analyzer in reflecting my teaching
skills. Besides that, it is also importance to do a more details analysis on pupils
performance by using various test such as placement test and diagnostic test. Having
good rapport with pupils will let me know what they want and expect from a teacher.
Drnyei (2006) stated that learning styles is the natural characteristic which students
prefer in learning acquisition. It is important for the teacher to know the pupils need and
interest because they are the one who are learning and receiving the knowledge and
teacher as the leader need to be more aware of the things happened in the classroom
environment.
Teacher as a problem solver
In the teaching profession, the teacher will always face problems and new adventure on
how to organize the class, classroom control, classroom management, time
management and others. During my practicum, I did face quite a lot of problems with my
classroom control and time management. In the first phase of my practicum, I really
worried with my time management because I could not determine the level of
proficiency of my pupils in the classroom. Some of them might finish the task given in
just 5 minutes and others may need 10 minutes to finish it. However, with time and
some analysis, I was able to overcome the problems and come out with more suitable
task for my pupils.
During my practicum, I faced problems to control my year 2 class. The pupils were able
to follow my instructions but the problem was with their attitude in completing the task
given. It was very hard to stop them from doing the task given such as writing exercise
or speaking activities. They really want to finish the task first before moving to the next
stage because they felt if they did not finish the task, they were not good pupils.
In order to overcome this problem, I used merit and demerit system in my class. I
usually grouped them in group of five. I gave the points based on their group behavior
and it really work because they want to be the best group of that lesson. Skinner in his
work stated that using reward or reinforcing stimulus right after the behaviour occurred
could help the teacher to achieve the desired outcomes from the pupils (Charles, 2008).
In future, I need to be more aware and could do some experiment on which one is the
best method to control the class because each class has their own differences and
uniqueness. Besides that, it is also important for me to do some discussion with the
teachers who teach the same class on how they handle the pupils. By discussing with
other teachers, it might help me to find out the best solutions to control the class.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I realized that real-classroom situation is different from the expected-
classroom situation. As an example, I could use positive reinforcement in Class A, but
the method is probably not working in Class B. I learnt a lot from the pupils, the other
teachers, the staffs, and the experiences. From my experience, I realized that a teacher
must quickly learn and adapt with the surrounding.













References
Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching. United States of
America. Pearson Education.

Charles C. M. (2008). Building Classroom Discipline. United States of America.
Pearson.

Dornyei, Z. (2006). Individual differences in second language acquisition. Retrieved
from
https://flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/protected/langtchg303/5/dornyei_06.pdf

Effective literacy practice in years 1 to 4. (2003). Wellington: Learning Media Limited.

Hu, W. (2011). Math that moves: school embrace the iPad. Retrieved from
http://www.pearsonschool.com/drm/2010/ipadpilot/NY_Times_iPad_story_1-4-
11.pdf

Lightbown, P. M. & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. New York. Oxford
University Press.

VanPatten, B. (2007). Theories in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.

Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2007). Doing Task-based Teaching. New York. Oxford
University Press.